Tshirt Designs - Will they sell?

[ExcelGuy]

On Twitter I sometimes use the hashtag [HASHTAG]#tshirtbiz[/HASHTAG] and put up some charts for marketing ideas etc. Here is a latest one comparing redbubble vs. Teespring.

So Redbubble is the winner by sheer volume. But looking at geographic results in interesting as well. I have a number of other niche lines but I am scaling back a bit to treat it more as a hobby. But my first major goal has been accomplished: I now have a number of designs on redbubble and a few other sites so I just hope they sell.

Also, redbubble has no quota, and a large community group of niche designers.

I have started using Adwords to direct people to a redbubble page, but still need to read all of @Andy Black 's posts. But limited it to $20 and got a 4.5% clickthru but no purchases. I know that that specific design is too artsy for mainstream people. Will try again next month with a simpler design.

I bought a mini-button maker and started an Etsy store. For selling on Etsy you have to produce the items yourself or have the vendor (printer) approved. So I can sell buttons I make but not tshirts printed by Gooten. So I bought some iron on transfers and the quality is actually quite nice. My sense of ethics is limiting me here. I can probably sell dozens of Dr. Who / Scifi geek buttons and shirts, but it's copyright infringement unless I design my own "fan art" and sell them.

I was going to buy heat press last month, then decided against it, and now it might be a good idea. Will keep it on hold for a while.

Instead of working on designs late at night (which is the only time I have available mostly) I read a chapter or two of the Fastlane book. So I'll soon have a better grasp of what I'm doing right, and what I'm doing wrong.

I'm also taking a free icon/symbol drawing course on Skillshare, and a person I took a class from last year just offered me 3months for $0.99 so I might take a few more courses and up my design skills. Plus, Skillshare has an affiliate program, and I like their courses.

So I'm basically running a one man design studio as a hobby and hope I can use the profit to put back into the business as I try and find a winner.

I was looking for another domain name for my personal design studio and a domain I used a few years ago is being held by a company in China. I could take my business site and add a blog aimed a beginner graphic designers with tutorials and a few quality affiliate programs. I can develop very good tutorials (and I was planning on a Udemy course anyway) which is actually my primary career field essentially.

I'll try and do some more reading on the forum and see what people are up to. But I have at least 1 "commission" to work on, my chiro wants a shirt with my logo on it (deciding on which one is best) but he wants "a white, v-neck, longsleeve tshirt" and I have to look into different long sleeve options

Plus an ex-gf has a 13yo son who is very sick with severe Crohn's disease and he's raising money for a charity he started called "Jacob's Healing Rooms" at Sick Kids Hospital and his mom wants some shirts done and I think a logo would be good. He has a birthday celebration coming up in December I should be attending in Oshawa and will be getting a couple of shirts together and maybe put a line together on Design By Humans to raise money for him.

So given that kind of work load, trying to figure out how to develop and market a tshirt line or lifestyle brand will be put on the back burner.

But then when I took time off on friday to rest my brain 10 new ideas came flooding in

 

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[Jphiladeng]

Opening an Etsy is a great idea! I think you should stay away from copyright stuff on Etsy. I've gotten dinged a couple times even though I didn't agree that I was infringing on anything. I didn't want to put up a fight even though I think I was in the right. They dish out cease and desist letters like it's going out of style.

Anyways, Etsy has a good audience for more artsy items. You can sell shirts with your own artwork and it will do well. The key is to have high quality stuff. Take great pictures. I've sold shirts with just illustrations of animals on them. Owls, otters, raccoons etc.

You have to find what works on Etsy because it's a different marketplace with a different audience.

 

[Sanj Modha]

I started ecommerce by selling t-shirts off Teespring.com back in Jan 2014. The biggest challenge was finding designs that *might* sell. There are a few ways to tackle this:

1) if you have a social media presence - ask your audience: "would you buy this?" I've done it on FB with with a square made up of 4 designs. Ask them: "which design do you like the most from A, B, C or D?" and watch for the engagement. You can also run competitions and quizzes to generate a buzz.

2) look at the competition to see what's selling and take ideas from it. I'm not advocating 'copycatting' but what you can do is expand on the design, slogan or target market. For example, if the competition is selling a "This dog mom loves..." shirts - you can expand by adding "This Pug Mom loves..." and so on.

3) hang out with niche audiences in forums, FB groups, signup to newsletters etc and learn what they're talking about it. I did this with one of my best sellers when I saw a forum post that said: "I'd love a shirt that said...". I took the slogan, sent it to my designer who made it for $25 and it went on to sell $1000s. I even sent the lady a shirt for coming up with the idea and she was thrilled.

Creating a shirt brand is a bigger beast to tackle and not something I have experience with.

Good luck.

 

[ExcelGuy]

I just posted this on another forum but I lost my job on Monday, November 28. I was working there for 16 years. Redundancy layoff was quite sudden and there may be some funny business going on.

So on the Instagram account I started for my next new business, I used Nov 28 as the birthday setting [emoji41].

I'm sitting in an OnRoute (Starbucks, Swiss Chalet, burger King etc.) north of Toronto on my way 5 hours north (to Sudbury...Azilda actually) to visit my folks, get a break from the kids and wife and do some design work and heavy thinking. Getting dizzy from being on Tapatalk for the past hour!

I'll be posting soon my new (ad)venture.

 

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[Roots]

Good Stuff. Thank you for the progress updates.

 

[ExcelGuy]

Just before Xmas I registered my name as an Ontario business for $60 CAD and that allowed me to apply for an HST number. I can now apply as a reseller or wholesaler and set up an account with AlphaBroder.ca. Now I just have to figure out how to make the best use out of it all.

Custom printing shirts is totally not Fastlane so I'll probably stick with niche designs posted Redbubble until I get more designs out and get traction in the marketplace.

But doing an order for 50 shirts and 50 matching doggie tees is teaching me an awful lot.[emoji4]

FWIW I registered as a graphic design business and software development since I thought it was most flexible and I don't think it really matters anywhere.

 

[GuestUser4aMPs1]

Just before Xmas I registered my name as an Ontario business for $60 CAD and that allowed me to apply for an HST number. I can now apply as a reseller or wholesaler and set up an account with AlphaBroder.ca. Now I just have to figure out how to make the best use out of it all.

Custom printing shirts is totally not Fastlane so I'll probably stick with niche designs posted Redbubble until I get more designs out and get traction in the marketplace.

But doing an order for 50 shirts and 50 matching doggie tees is teaching me an awful lot.[emoji4]

FWIW I registered as a graphic design business and software development since I thought it was most flexible and I don't think it really matters anywhere.

What about Sales?

 

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[GuestUser4aMPs1]

@ExcelGuy Hello?

 

[ExcelGuy]

@ExcelGuy Hello?

Ok..., what do you mean what about sales? Been meaning to make an update lately and have been crushed by life.

Strangely last month on a POD site I sold 2 stickers and a mug based on a design I did inspired by the Tragically Hip [emoji1] .

My buddy who runs a landscaping biz wants 30 shirts with his logo, my chiro said next month he'll buy some performance golf shirts with my first design on it, and a woman I met is starting a crowd funding campaign for an idea she has combining branded tshirts and socks.

So now I know how to do custom printed socks (made in Canada). [emoji106]

And she also wants about 40 shirts with a design on it for a local porch party event she's running.

But since doggie shirt lady got sick and fell off the map, I'm not holding my breath expecting things to work out awesome until the shirts are delivered and paid for.

One guy who bought 2 custom shorts from me and wanted to buy 2 more slightly modified. I was going thru a tough time I January (lost my job in November) so my wife said just put the design on the POD site and email him the link. He never bought the shirts.

Things with my "business plan" are starting to become more clear now. My brand's Instagram account may have been hacked because I can't log in and it appears the email has been changed. But I realized my personal account was getting more followers anyway and realized I was sort of competing with myself.

I've also been reading the emails and site by Michael Essek. His model is simply to put out hundreds of designs on multiple sites and didn't do ad marketing until recently. He now hires 5 designers to do designs a post them to sites for him.

And I cancelled my Web host because I wasn't running a shop, had few visitors, and had nothing there to offer people anyway.

Looking at cheaper host options, and might focus more on Tictail instead of Redbubble because the margin is higher. Just trying to learn more about the customers who use Tictail and their preferences and buying habits.

AND started a site aimed at teaching people Excel and Business Intelligence but I find tshirts more fun [emoji2].

 

[ExcelGuy]

So my current plan is build up a rep and base of designs that people are actually buying before I spend money on hosting and advertising. Using tshirt sites as a testing marketplace for 0 cost until I get enough funds to go into ad marketing and hosting my own ecommerce store.

Sent from my SM-A500W using Tapatalk

 

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[ExcelGuy]

Sold a sticker yesterday and made $0.69 from Redbubble and they charge $4.95. I'd be better served having the stickers printed locally then selling them on my Etsy store.

Not enough time to do designs. Ball sock lady fell thru. Dog shirt lady was pregnant, has moved into town, and says "I haven't forgotten you."

No order from my chiropractor yet but I did 30 shirts for my buddy...though probably under charged.

Met up with an old friend and might do bowling shirts for his pool team. Could lead to work for a league of 120 teams. They even have had problems getting trophies so I said "I can do that."

Need to research trophies soon.

Doing some buttons and laser cut wooden tokens for geocaching for my friends. They are willing to pay.

Possibly accepted to an Art Gallery bazaar for the fall so will have to produce something.

Shifting back to Elearning and build a few portfolio items and this "design" business should be a hobby.

Anyone have problems with Redbubble stealing designs? I hear it's a thing.

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[ExcelGuy]

Opening an Etsy is a great idea! ...

You have to find what works on Etsy because it's a different marketplace with a different audience.

This us an even better idea now that Printful integrates with Etsy. There is a local Etsy show this weekend here and some recent makers I've met will be there so perhaps I can make an effort of getting to be there next year.

Partnered up with a young guy who basically pre-sold 4 shirts we don't we even have yet, and may land a 50-100 shirt job from a (wedding) DJ buddy of his.

Just designed and cut vinyl for 12 shirts for my wife and her friends for a race tomorrow (the Ideal T racer back tank from Next Level via AlphaBroder is nice) so that was an experience. And may get 9 camp shirts for a buddy's pool team which could lead to shirts for the entire league.

Sold a shirt via Tictail to a guy's wife in Texas for cosplay. (Hawkeye)

But really the Instagram and Facebook seems like a waste of time. I'm getting almost a job a month via word of mouth.

Should still work on putting more designs on POD sites.

Just got turned down for a job I really wanted.

T-minus 4 months and 1 day before my contract runs out and I become unemployed again.

 

[biophase]

Ok, I just came upon this thread today and have missed it since it started so I just read the whole thing. Here is my main thought. You have no direction and are just going where people pull you. You started out wanting to do a T-shirt business. I presume that you were going to design stuff that you liked. I mean why else would you start a T-shirt business?

Then you realized your designs were bad. Solution should have been, learn to make better designs, not hire designers. You had time, but no money.

Then it felt like you became a t-shirt printing company. You are making shirts for people, which is not a T-shirt company. You are doing business shirts, socks and now trophies? What you are now is basically one of those custom business logo companies that can make custom mugs and shirts for people. Is this what you want?

Just say NO to all that stuff and do the shirts you want to do. This is why you are where you are at today.

BTW, I recently added t-shirts to my shopify store. I use Printful to fulfill, I make $0 on the shirts since I use the Bella/Next Level shirts and print front and back. My shirts are priced at $19.99. The purpose of the shirts is just for marketing of my company. Surprisingly they are selling very well. But there is a brand and meaning behind the shirt. This is what I think your shirts are missing. You need a reason for someone to want to wear your brand.

 

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[ALC]

I think to be profitable on this business is to be able to custom the tshirt yourself (with the machines and stuff) and also importing t-shirts from China to get a higher margins.
I have a great idea of t-shirt, the brand name is awesome and nobody has used it for the moments, but i really think this is not profitable enough if you're outsourcing the entire work, i do think you need to do everything in intern (by yourself) but only importing the tees and hoodies from China.

If ever i'm wrong and someone could give us any tips..go ahead !

 

[biophase]

I think to be profitable on this business is to be able to custom the tshirt yourself (with the machines and stuff) and also importing t-shirts from China to get a higher margins.
I have a great idea of t-shirt, the brand name is awesome and nobody has used it for the moments, but i really think this is not profitable enough if you're outsourcing the entire work, i do think you need to do everything in intern (by yourself) but only importing the tees and hoodies from China.

If ever i'm wrong and someone could give us any tips..go ahead !

The only think I'd say you are wrong about is that your brand name is awesome. The name doesn't make the brand. Was the word Google awesome before Google, or Nike or Under Armour?

 

[ALC]

The only think I'd say you are wrong about is that your brand name is awesome. The name doesn't make the brand. Was the word Google awesome before Google, or Nike or Under Armour?

What i wanted to say is, the brand name is actually a sort of lifestyle, state of mind, not only a brand you know, but a name that could represent your life/lifestyle, hope it clarify the thing.
Btw, i do think that this type of idea, a brand that represent a lifestyle is more likely to be successful that just a simple design but the only thing i need to do is order samples and try to sell...

 

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[ExcelGuy]

I think to be profitable on this business is to be able to custom the tshirt yourself (with the machines and stuff) and also importing t-shirts from China to get a higher margins.
I have a great idea of t-shirt, the brand name is awesome and nobody has used it for the moments, but i really think this is not profitable enough if you're outsourcing the entire work, i do think you need to do everything in intern (by yourself) but only importing the tees and hoodies from China.

If ever i'm wrong and someone could give us any tips..go ahead !

The only problem is the incredible delay in getting things from China but that could be managed if done right.

Sent from my SM-A500W using Tapatalk

 

[ExcelGuy]

... You need a reason for someone to want to wear your brand.

You make some very valid points. To some degree I'm still finding my legs and what works. What's wrong with being a promotional company if the market is there? I do have some brand ideas I could go with, I just haven't at the moment.

But definitely food for thought. Market research required for sure.


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[ALC]

The only problem is the incredible delay in getting things from China but that could be managed if done right.

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When you've started to use a supplier from China, have you ordered samples ?
Where to look at, alibaba ?

Also, before even order a sample either from china or France, with a printer compagny, do i need to secure my logo and brand ?
I'm afraid that if i place an order and one employees see the potential of my brand, he would immediatly copy everything and pay the organization in order to secure the brand in its name

 

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[Xeon]

I think to be profitable on this business is to be able to custom the tshirt yourself (with the machines and stuff) and also importing t-shirts from China to get a higher margins.
I have a great idea of t-shirt, the brand name is awesome and nobody has used it for the moments, but i really think this is not profitable enough if you're outsourcing the entire work, i do think you need to do everything in intern (by yourself) but only importing the tees and hoodies from China.

If ever i'm wrong and someone could give us any tips..go ahead !

Even if you import the blanks from china, you still need to do the printing and fulfillment (dealing with SHIPPING to various countries is a PITA) and these two issues are insane. Where will you find the time to design?

Assuming you are serious about this, you need real DTG / screen printers, not heat presses. I could go on and on but....

Another issue with these PODs like Printful is their markup is too high, quality is hit or miss (just look at the reviews!!!) and they take too long to ship.(5 to 7 working days, are u kidding me?)

Some of those like redbubble, cafepress, Zazzle, spreadshirt and society6 are even worse. Low low low markups hard to survive! Worst thing is : you design and ship under their brand! That's what customers see and will remember. The customers are ordering under their brand and not yours. I can't even imagine how these artists can upload their hard work into these.

Let's not even get into the quality of these guys.

There are some good PODs (smaller ones that don't advertise that much) out there but it seems people are not willing to put in the days and months to dig them out. PODs are like manufacturers, you want to find the best absolute you can.

 

[biophase]

What i wanted to say is, the brand name is actually a sort of lifestyle, state of mind, not only a brand you know, but a name that could represent your life/lifestyle, hope it clarify the thing.
Btw, i do think that this type of idea, a brand that represent a lifestyle is more likely to be successful that just a simple design but the only thing i need to do is order samples and try to sell...

A lifestyle brand is not dictated by a word, or brand. You need to build it. For example, Life is Good is a or was a popular lifestyle brand. They had 3 good words put together, but they still needed to build their brand through design and maintain their brand look and feel.

 

[ALC]

Even if you import the blanks from china, you still need to do the printing and fulfillment (dealing with SHIPPING to various countries is a PITA) and these two issues are insane. Where will you find the time to design?

Assuming you are serious about this, you need real DTG / screen printers, not heat presses. I could go on and on but....

Another issue with these PODs like Printful is their markup is too high, quality is hit or miss (just look at the reviews!!!) and they take too long to ship.

Some of those like redbubble, cafepress, Zazzle, spreadshirt and society6 are even worse. Low low low markups hard to survive! Worst thing is : you design and ship under their brand! That's what customers see and will remember. The customers are ordering under their brand and not yours. I can't even imagine how these artists can upload their hard work into these.

Let's not even get into the quality of these guys.

There are some good PODs (smaller ones that don't advertise that much) out there but it seems people are not willing to put in the days and months to dig them out. PODs are like manufacturers, you want to find the best absolute you can.

What about working with chinese supplier and asking him for a sample ? like for a hoodie or t shirt ?

I think first i will order on a website like Printful, but in France, then i'll see if the design is good.
Then i'll contact a chinese supplier to see if i can make a full customized hoodie, with all my labels and brand.

 

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[biophase]

What's wrong with being a promotional company if the market is there?

If that's what you want that is fine. The market is there for everything. That's just a chasing money excuse. There's a market for t-shirts too. You just aren't selling to it, or you can't sell to it because your skills aren't there yet. But they aren't get any better. How does making trophies help your t-shirt business?

Don't kid yourself into thinking you are running a t-shirt business.

Just think of where you would be today if you just kept grinding on your shirts.

I bet you would be an expert on PS and Illustrator. I bet you would know what current trends are and what designs sell. I bet you would have partnered with a good local printing company. I bet you would have created 40-50 designs and using print on demand to test, found at least 4-5 good designs that sell.

The point is that you need to stick to something and work on it to make progress. You can't just jump from one thing to another and expect any progress in any one thing.

 

[biophase]

Another issue with these PODs like Printful is their markup is too high, quality is hit or miss (just look at the reviews!!!) and they take too long to ship.(5 to 7 working days, are u kidding me?)

Some of those like redbubble, cafepress, Zazzle, spreadshirt and society6 are even worse. Low low low markups hard to survive! Worst thing is : you design and ship under their brand! That's what customers see and will remember.

They don't ship under their brand. There's nothing in the package that has their name. They put my company name on it, but the return address is their address.

You can't really make good money using POD. But I do like not having inventory and being able to offer many colors and sizes. Printful wants me to sell my t-shirts at $24.99. My cost comes out to $19. I sell my shirts at $19.99. But I'm not in the t-shirt business, so the shirts at breakeven are just fine for me.

 

[ExcelGuy]

As other people on here have said, PoD can ve a good way to test your designs in a market and you can take the popular ones, print them locally and sell them locally or on your own web site.

Simply by registering as a business I can get wholesale pricing from AlphaBroder so basic Gildan can cost $2.69 CAD.

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[Xeon]

What about working with chinese supplier and asking him for a sample ? like for a hoodie or t shirt ?
I think first i will order on a website like Printful, but in France, then i'll see if the design is good.
Then i'll contact a chinese supplier to see if i can make a full customized hoodie, with all my labels and brand.

The problem with Printful is that, if you go google for the reviews and really dig into it, you will see that a significant portion of their printed t-shirts have negative reviews, or they took too long to ship (5 - 7 working days for single t-shirt orders).
If you're running a serious brand, you need to keep the no. of returns as low as possible so that your brand is associated with *quality*. You don't want the print colors to run off after the 2nd wash, or the t-shirt came printed with the design looking very different from the original one on the screen.
With Printful, their % just isn't cutting it.

You can order samples from printful and see if it's any good, but thing is, the samples they send you might be good, but the ones your customers get will be hit-and-miss. You really should go google out and dig more into these POD stuff, there's a lot of very long detailed articles about some of the more popular ones.

For Biophase, I assume he's using Printful to sell the t-shirts to enhance his brand image and not running an actual t-shirt business like LifeIsGood, so that's not an issue for him.

For dealing with chinese suppliers, I can't give you advice on that, just make sure you know who you're dealing with.
Being a chinese and being someone familar with their style of working and their mindset (no offense to anyone here), you must ensure they don't take your designs and then print that as their own and sell it elsewhere. Chinese suppliers are hard to control especially if you're living on the other side of the world.

If I were you, I would forget about the hoodies first and just start with t-shirts to validate the designs and see if there's a market need before you go in too deep with these. There's many people on reddit wanting to start a "lifestyle t-shirt brand" with their logo on it and selling it for US$23.99, but problem is, who would want to buy a t-shirt with a random logo? LOL
You would need to really create a strong story behind the lifestyle brand and enhance it with visuals (supporting photos that enhance the message you want to carry across to your audience).

Btw, not sure if you're aware. Check out T-Shirt Forums. See if you can get any French POD contacts from there.
The China route should be your last resort. I know of a t-shirt printer in the UK that might fit what you're doing, you can PM me if you want to (nope, not affiliated with them LOL, got to know them during my research last year)

Also, for branding, check out LifeIsGood.com, OldGuysRule.com and especially, the king of t-shirt branding : JOHNNY CUPCAKES!!!!!

HINT : As I mentioned in my previous post, a lot of the better PODs don't advertise that much and their websites look crappy like they belong to the early 2000s LOL. These are the hidden gems! You have to use various multiple Google search terms to dig them out, and they're usually on the 3th, 4th or even 6th pages of the Google results.

They don't ship under their brand. There's nothing in the package that has their name. They put my company name on it, but the return address is their address.
You can't really make good money using POD. But I do like not having inventory and being able to offer many colors and sizes. Printful wants me to sell my t-shirts at $24.99. My cost comes out to $19. I sell my shirts at $19.99. But I'm not in the t-shirt business, so the shirts at breakeven are just fine for me.

Nope, I was referring to the sites like society6, cafepress, zazzle etc....who ship under their brand, not printful.

For POD, I think it's good for starters, but based on the CENTS model in Unscripted , once sales starts to really take off, it might be better to do it in-house so that the Control aspect can be fulfilled.

 

[ALC]

The problem with Printful is that, if you go google for the reviews and really dig into it, you will see that a significant portion of their printed t-shirts have negative reviews, or they took too long to ship (5 - 7 working days for single t-shirt orders).
If you're running a serious brand, you need to keep the no. of returns as low as possible so that your brand is associated with *quality*. You don't want the print colors to run off after the 2nd wash, or the t-shirt came printed with the design looking very different from the original one on the screen.
With Printful, their % just isn't cutting it.

You can order samples from printful and see if it's any good, but thing is, the samples they send you might be good, but the ones your customers get will be hit-and-miss. You really should go google out and dig more into these POD stuff, there's a lot of very long detailed articles about some of the more popular ones.

For Biophase, I assume he's using Printful to sell the t-shirts to enhance his brand image and not running an actual t-shirt business like LifeIsGood, so that's not an issue for him.

For dealing with chinese suppliers, I can't give you advice on that, just make sure you know who you're dealing with.
Being a chinese and being someone familar with their style of working and their mindset (no offense to anyone here), you must ensure they don't take your designs and then print that as their own and sell it elsewhere. Chinese suppliers are hard to control especially if you're living on the other side of the world.

If I were you, I would forget about the hoodies first and just start with t-shirts to validate the designs and see if there's a market need before you go in too deep with these. There's many people on reddit wanting to start a "lifestyle t-shirt brand" with their logo on it and selling it for US$23.99, but problem is, who would want to buy a t-shirt with a random logo? LOL
You would need to really create a strong story behind the lifestyle brand and enhance it with visuals (supporting photos that enhance the message you want to carry across to your audience).

Btw, not sure if you're aware. Check out T-Shirt Forums. See if you can get any French POD contacts from there.
The China route should be your last resort. I know of a t-shirt printer in the UK that might fit what you're doing, you can PM me if you want to (nope, not affiliated with them LOL, got to know them during my research last year)

Also, for branding, check out LifeIsGood.com, OldGuysRule.com and especially, the king of t-shirt branding : JOHNNY CUPCAKES!!!!!

HINT : As I mentioned in my previous post, a lot of the better PODs don't advertise that much and their websites look crappy like they belong to the early 2000s LOL. These are the hidden gems! You have to use various multiple Google search terms to dig them out, and they're usually on the 3th, 4th or even 6th pages of the Google results.




Nope, I was referring to the sites like society6, cafepress, zazzle etc....who ship under their brand, not printful.

For POD, I think it's good for starters, but based on the CENTS model in Unscripted , once sales starts to really take off, it might be better to do it in-house so that the Control aspect can be fulfilled.

In France, the only POD who has the hoodie i want to try my design on is selling me it for 65 euros shipped, just imagine haha!
That's why i think working with chinese suppliers is more reliable and profitable, and it's even more profitable as i want to place myself in a Premium/Minimalist Brand section, because my brand name and lifestyle i want to represent is in the "rich/hustler" lifestyle.

A bit like the brand "BALR.", not the same price, but same type of business.
First of all, i'm trying to secure my brand because even if it's not working on the web, i could wear it everyday without worring if someone gonna steal it, because it would be mine ! (much loves for the royalties if someone want to steal my idea)

 

[ExcelGuy]

The point is that you need to stick to something and work on it to make progress. You can't just jump from one thing to another and expect any progress in any one thing.

These are some great insights that I never thought through. I have partnered with a local printer and I do have 2 designs so far that are selling. I have put the word out to friends and have printed batches of promo shirts for them to bring in money to keep the process going.

And you're right, becoming an expert on PS and Illustrator are outcomes I would like. I became an expert in Inkscape (for designing tshirts) just by doing these shirts and that in itself could be a niche market... people using Inkscape instead of Illustrator but then the demand and bankroll for Illustrator training is definitely there. But people using free, open source software tend to prefer free training. I could use some marketing insight on that aspect.

I'm coming to the realization that my largest skillset is in training and helping people solve their (lack of) knowledge problem and I'm slowly moving forward in that direction.

I received a free certification from Adobe that allows me to give professional development sessions to teachers and I'm becoming known in the Adobe / teacher community. So tshirts is fun and will bring in more income overtime but I'll be developing my training site in the near future. Site has been up for a year now but I need to develop a product that will be of interest to clients for purchase.

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[ExcelGuy]

This fall a student of mine came to me and asked to partner with me about developing and selling tshirts. Turns out he mostly wanted to rip off other existing brands, but I convinced him otherwise and started explaining the "biz" to him. Turns out he *really does* want to go with transfers to rapidly produce cheap shirts and sell them to university students on campus. He says the market is there and we had a brief business agreement... of which nothing has come due to life's problems. But we still have an idea for St. Patrick's Day [emoji41][emoji106].

The moral here is that some young guys can probably make some good quick money selling transfer shirts on a campus but it won't last long. My takeaway was how to become a preferred supplier for university approved swag to their captive audience [emoji41][emoji3]. I'll post an update if it ever happens.

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[Ing]

Though you seem not to have succeeded, Thanks for the thread and thanks to all posters for the interesting insights!